What's it like to have an asteroid named after you? Our night sky columnist Joe Rao explains

an illustration of the orbits of the solar system bodies including an asteroid named "200009Joerao"

Joe Rao is no stranger to the night sky.

The veteran meteorologist and eclipse chaser has served as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He also write about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, including Space.com, for which he serves as skywatching columnist. Aside from his astronomy outreach, Rao is an eight-time Emmy-nominated meteorologist who brought weather forecasts to the Putnam Valley region of New York for over 21 years.